Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,976 entitled "Laminated Card Assembly" and granted on Sep. 2, 1997. This patent teaches a method for creating laminated cards for printing by a laser printer from an assembly. There are three basic material components to this invention, a cardstock sheet, a transparent laminated plastic film, and intermediate pressure sensitive adhesive that adheres the cardstock sheet and plastic film together. A user feeds the assembly into a printer. The printer prints onto the surface of the cardstock that may be die cut into the shape of a membership card, for example. The user removes the card from the assembly and concurrently peels a rectangular area of the transparent plastic from the assembly. The user then folds the transparent plastic to cover the printed surface of the card. This transparent plastic layer serves the function of displaying the information and protecting the information on the card.
Laminated cards, such as the one referenced above, tend to have simple shapes. They typically come in the size and shape of a business or membership card that is rectangular so that it can be easily laminated. Even adhesive index tabs and hinging file folder tabs have relatively simple symmetrical configurations that fold over about the center line, which allows easy lamination to take place. Hence, laminated cards have generally been limited to simple flat configurations. Furthermore, laminated cards typically have no function, other than to display the information on the card in a protective manner.
Consequently, while the a "Laminated Card Assembly" disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,976 are useful for providing a construction for displaying the information on the card in a protective manner, it has shortcomings in that its function is limited to expressing the information on the card in a simple two-dimensional format. Accordingly, a need still exists for a laminated construction that can do more than simply display information in a simple two-dimensional rectangular configuration.